Mechanical screening

Mechanical screening is like playing a game of sorting things! Remember how when you sort your blocks by color, you put all the red ones together, and all the blue ones together? Mechanical screening is a process where we try to sort different materials based on their size.

Just like how your blocks are different sizes and shapes, materials can come in different sizes and shapes too! In mechanical screening, we make use of machines that have different sized holes or meshes through which the materials are passed. When the materials go through the machine, the ones that are smaller than the mesh size fall through while the ones that are larger stay on top of the mesh.

For example, when we try to separate sand from gravel, we pass sand and gravel together through a machine that has mesh with small holes. The sand will easily pass through, while the gravel will stay on top. This is mechanical screening in action!

Mechanical screening is used in many industries to separate materials for various purposes. For instance, in the mining industry, it is used to separate different types of ores. In the food industry, it can be used to separate seeds from fruits. So next time you play with your blocks, remember that mechanical screening is like sorting different materials by their size!